New York Appeals Court To Weigh Legal Rights Of Chimps

ALBANY, N.Y., Oct 7 (Reuters) - A New York appeals court will consider this week whether chimpanzees are entitled to "legal personhood" in what experts say is the first case of its kind.

For Steven Wise, the lawyer behind the case involving a chimp named Tommy, it is the culmination of three decades of seeking to extend rights historically reserved for humans to other intelligent animals.